CM602 Effective systems development

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CM602 Effective systems development

• Introduction to
• Social dimensions of information systems
• David Miller

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Themes for this lecture

• We interpret the the physical world from our
  different but intersecting social worlds
• To be effective an I.T. professional must
  understand the social dimension of information
  systems.
• Determining information systems requirements is a
  hot spot within the social dimension.

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services- users designers.
Different, intersecting social worlds
www.fv2k.co.uk www.joe-ks.com www.bbc.co.uk www.we
bse.com.my www.fao.org www.namahn.com /www.london.
gov.uk www.corrosioncost.com
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Themes for this lecture

• We interpret the the physical world from our
  different but intersecting social worlds
• To be effective an I.T. professional must
  understand the social dimension of information
  systems.
• Determining information systems requirements is a
  hot spot within the social dimension.

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Short stories to illustrate some of the social,
psychological and political aspects of I.S.
development.

• The production manager from the Welsh factory
  story.
• The myths and demons story.
• The nobody got back to me story. you do this
  one
• The over the wall story.

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Themes for this lecture

• We interpret the the physical world from our
  different but intersecting social worlds
• To be effective an I.T. professional must
  understand the social dimension of information
  systems.
• Determining information systems requirements is a
  hot spot within the social dimension.

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I.S. development hazards in the social dimension
include

• Differences among users
•  
• Differences between users and developers
• Cognitive limitations of individuals
• Tacit and explicit knowledge

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Bridging social worlds

• The social conditions have to be conducive
• Showing enhances telling
• Attitude
• There is expertise in all work activity
• experts make things look simpler than they are
• Different expertise is required in different
  situations hence
• Different social worlds value different
  expertise.
• Example of this put into practice as a method
  Apprenticing with the customer.

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One more example The Therac-25 medical linear
accelerator

• THERAC-25 was developed used in North America in
  1980s.
• It delivers a high intensity electron beam
  capable of destroying tissue and is used in
  cancer treatment.

http//www.augustana.ab.ca/mohrj/courses/2006.win
ter/csc120/slides/ch10/ch10.html
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THERAC-25 operating modes
For x-ray mode, a much more powerful beam is
fired through a target plate
  (source http//www5.in.tum.de/lehre/seminare/se
msoft/unterlagen_02/therac/website/index.html
accessed 9/06)
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THERAC-25

• For a full discussion of the THERAC-25 case see
  Leveson,N Turner,C.S. (1993) An investigation
  of the Therac-25 accidents, IEEE Computer, Vol.
  26, No. 7, 18-41.
• This is available on-line at http//courses.cs.vt
  .edu/cs3604/lib/Therac_25/Therac_4.html accessed
  9/06)

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Significance of THERAC-25 case

• It is important to see beyond the immediate
  causes of an accident , often operator error,
  to latent causes such as
• poor design processes e.g.
• failure of designers to understand context of
  use,
• failure to test in realistic contexts of use
• poor management of installed systems e.g.
• poor monitoring of system performance
•  
• The conditions that lead to poor decision making
  in design and management frequently occur in the
  process of designing and using all complex
  systems, even if the consequences are less
  serious.
• If you think about it, you will have some
  personal experience of this.